Award-winning playwright Peter Njangi hosts drama icons to party

Brookhouse School Karen Campus

Brookhouse School Karen Campus Nairobi rehearse the Mamma Mia! concert at the school. 

Photo credit: Anthony Njagi | Nation Media Group

Award-winning playwright and director Peter Njangi kicked off the year 2024 by hosting more than 100 thespians at his Sabasaba home in Murang’a County on Saturday.

During the get-together of exchanging ideas and planning, Joseph Murungu, Eric Mukolwe Wekesa, George Murimi Gitau, and John Muchwe took the gathering through exciting episodes of their most memorable pieces on stage.

Murungu caused laughter when he narrated how in a church drama he acted as a goat, but the goat owner on the stage in a fit of characterisation caned him hard, forgetting they were acting. He however said he complained later to their leader.

Murungu is famed for lighting up festivals with productions that give the audience a special food for thought.  In 2019 during the festival held at Kibabii University in Bungoma County, Murungu lit up the hall with his production Riddles of Sangoma.

At the get-together, Wekesa performed a singing game skit amid prolonged laughter from the icons present. The genre is a preserve of the youngest children at the pre-primary level at the National Drama Festival.

Njangi said that the idea of hosting eminent drama icons at a New Year fete was to have them bond together and exchange ideas.

He asked the government to be honouring some of them with end-of-the-year national awards like Presidential Commendation.

Njangi who rose to stardom in 2001 when he wrote and directed a winning play "The Village Well" with Kiaguthu Boys High School said the get-together would be annual for all Kenyan thespians.

 Mr Njangi is the former Principal of Kiaguthu Boys, Njiris School, and Chief Officer of Murang’a County in charge of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, on January 14, the Kenya Drama and Film Festival adjudicators briefing will be held at KICD, Nairobi.